The Patient Who Cured His Therapist: And Other Stories of Unconventional Therapy

I was very taken by the premise of this book -- that one can often help patients gain wisdom by searching for a deep down positive reason they may be behaving in a way that we would consider dysfunctional. The examples were excellent. I have always puzzled about why people do certain things that seem self-destructive, and looking at the examples in the book, I can better understand. I also think that it is very common for therapists to find that patients have a gut instinct to continue apparently maladaptive behaviors, and that taking the positive approach suggested by this author can be very helpful for allowing the patient to gain insight without feeling attacked. The stories are very striking, and I love the message -- don't attack maladaptive behaviors; examine them closely to see how they are helping the patient's situation. Then, you can work together to see if the good outweighs the bad, or if the patient might want to explore different, less maladaptive ways of obtaining the same benefit.

As a first year master's student in counseling, I enjoyed this book because people's stories fascinate me--their case histories and how the therapist relates with the patient. This book is for the most part extremely interesting because it's written by someone who thinks outside the box. The title story was one of my favorites.